Kovacevic: Karlsson, the maestro, needed time to get everyone in tune

Oh, man, there it was.

They finally, finally, finally did the Erik Karlsson play.

Meaning this one, of course:

For anyone who follows the NHL beyond Pittsburgh city limits, that'll feel plenty familiar. Because it's the primary process through which Karlsson's become one of the great defensemen of his generation: Plant a forward or two down low, line 'em up like football officials under goalposts if needed, then wait for the maestro to wave his wand from out at the point.

That's how he's put up 774 career points.

That's how he put up 101 of those last season alone in San Jose for a last-place team, essentially feeding a gaggle of fourth-liners for gimme putts.

And that, my friends, was almost how he and Sidney Crosby had planned this one out, as well.

"I told Sid to go down there for that power play," Karlsson would tell me after the Penguins' 4-0 slamming of the Sabres on this Saturday night at PPG Paints Arena, one that stretched their winning streak to four and saw them climb above .500 for the first time at 7-6. "Just go down by the side of the net. That's exactly what we wanted to do."

Eh. Not exactly. The puck's supposed to make it to the captain, and he's supposed to get the goal. Instead, it ricocheted off the toe of Buffalo defenseman Erik Johnson's blade and up over Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen's blocker, prompting Sid to spin around and smile toward Karlsson.

"All right," Karlsson would respond when I kidded him about that. "But we were close. That's why we were laughing about it."

Close isn't nothing. Not on this front.

Look, there was plenty to like about this performance. Team's just back from a perfect three-game California trip, having flown home Friday, and the push was there for all 60 minutes. Evgeni Malkin scored a beauty, Drew O'Connor his first, and Tristan Jarry was able to open his swollen eye just in time to stop all 36 shots from the semi-resurgent Sabres. All concerned deserved all the applause they'd receive all night from the fun crowd of 18,429 on hand.

But this play I'm talking about ... this one's a must.

Not just because it was a game-sealer 27 seconds into the third period. Not just because it was part of Karlsson's first multiple-goal effort with his new team, accompanied by a later empty-netter. But mostly because it's yet another in a growing string of signs that this legitimately great talent is making his home in Pittsburgh among others living at his level.

That was never going to be instant or automatic. Tendencies still need to be learned. The tiniest of details can make the biggest of differences.

I asked Mike Sullivan after the morning skate, for example, about improved movement on the power play, and I stressed that I was referring to players and not the puck. He prefers a constant motion to prevent predictability.

Guess which name was the first he'd cite.

"Obviously, Erik being new to the group, we anticipated an adjustment process there with some of his tendencies and our guys trying to get familiar with that and vice versa," Sullivan would reply. "I do think the movement is becoming more purposeful, which is an important aspect of our power play, or any power play. I think early on there was a little bit of a disconnect where we had movement, but it wasn’t necessarily purposeful. So, there was a level of unpredictability ... but we were unpredictable to one another, also."

Case in point's the same goal, but here from an expanded timeframe:

This is a gorgeous zone entry. Let me admire that for a moment before we proceed: Sid gains the blue line with speed, dishes to Reilly Smith, who chips up to Sid, who chips around to Geno, who chips back to Jake Guentzel, who eventually chips back to Karlsson.

Awesome, right?

Five touches, one target. And the correct target. Because the maestro needs to conduct. As I've been writing since the opening of training camp, no team adds a power-play performer of this caliber and asks him to play the tuba. He's got to be in charge. And within that, the group needs to be both assembled and assigned to work in concert with him. Not the other way around.

Now, take another glance at how Karlsson glides across to his beloved center-point, giving the puck to the perpetually heady Smith for the pure purpose of getting it back once they're less pressure, then flicking that shot-pass through.

That's the Karlsson play. And the most amazing aspect to it is that it works whether he's got a plugger at that far post or this century's premier player. If it's through -- and with his precision, combined with the uncanny skating to craft the lane, it usually is -- it'll bring a redirect or a rebound or even this oddity that actually resulted. And if there's two players down there, it's that much more dangerous.

Spy again who those two were here.

"Yeah, I know, Sid and Geno," he'd tell me. "That's pretty nice to have."

The power play's not getting much ice time -- second-to-last in the NHL, for reasons that Sullivan would fairly say in the morning, "I really don't understand" -- but it's still got to gear up. It's still got to become a factor, if not an outright force, for this team to contend. And, as I've also maintained since the start of camp, that means Sid, Geno and Jake have to be among those partaking in the Karlsson play. They just do. Maybe Smith, too, though he's been more about retrieval.

Think it's a coincidence that the Penguins' only sustained span of strong play this season has seen the power play convert 5 of 18 opportunities for a sterling 27.7 percent success rate?

Think it's a coincidence that Karlsson, regardless of on-ice situations, has a five-game points streak with three goals and six assists?

For that matter, and very much worth mentioning, think it's a coincidence that, for the season, Karlsson's got 13 points, a plus-7 rating that's second only to his partner Marcus Pettersson's plus-8, in addition to advanced analytics galore that love him, with my favorite being that he's been on the ice for 423 shot attempts by the Penguins, 35 more than any teammate?

He's also been, by every accounting a terrific teammate.

Check out this mic'd-up video from the game a week ago in San Jose. It's well worth it:

Check out this team-taken photo from Los Angeles, elegantly illustrating the genuine warmth and respect he and another elite defenseman, Kris Letang, have shown each other all along:

PENGUINS

Erik Karlsson and Kris Letang lace up the skates Thursday in Los Angeles.

Now check out the locker room scene after this game, notably what Karlsson would promise to the entire team after Bryan Rust blessed him with the old Jofa helmet:

Ha! He should trick them into a routine Starbucks run!

Finally, check out Karlsson's answer when I'd ask about the team's recent attention to defense that's seen five combined goals conceded over four games:

“I think we’re in a good place. I don’t think we’re in a great place," he'd come right back. "I think we’ve got a lot of room to improve, just in our overall game. We’re playing good enough hockey right now to win games, which I think we have been all year long. But it’s a long journey. We’re always striving to get better every day. I think just like any other team, as we get more experienced together, I think those things are going to come more naturally. We’ve got a lot of good clientele in here. I’m not too worried about that coming together at the right time.”

Clientele?

Hey, he's special. Treat him as such.

JOE SARGENT / GETTY

Erik Karlsson clears the puck from Tristan Jarry's crease Saturday night at PPG Paints Arena.

THE ESSENTIALS

• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule

THE HIGHLIGHTS

THE THREE STARS

As selected at PPG Paints Arena:

1. Tristan Jarry, Penguins G
2. Erik Karlsson, Penguins D
3. Evgeni Malkin, Penguins C

THE INJURIES

• Goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic (lower body) is on long-term injured reserve and can't return until Nov. 19. He's resumed skating.

• Defenseman John Ludvig (concussion) is on long-term injured reserve and can't return until Nov. 19. He's resumed skating. 

THE LINEUPS

Sullivan’s lines and pairings:

Jake Guentzel-Sidney Crosby-Bryan Rust
Reilly Smith-Evgeni Malkin-Rickard Rakell
Drew O'Connor-Lars Eller-Radim Zohorna
Matt Nieto-Noel Acciari-Vinnie Hinostroza

Ryan Graves-Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson-Erik Karlsson
Ryan Shea-Chad Ruhwedel

And for Don Granato's Sabres:

Jeff Skinner-Tage Thompson-JJ Peterka
Jordan Greenway-Casey Mittelstadt-Lukas Rousek
Victor Olofsson-Tyson Jost
Zemgus Girgensons-Dylan Cozens-Kyle Okposo

Rasmus Dahlin-Mattias Samuelsson
Owen Power-Henri Jokiharju
Connor Clifton-Erik Johnson
Ryan Johnson

THE MULTIMEDIA

THE SCHEDULE

Full day off Sunday. Back to practice Monday. And by Tuesday, we'll be over in Columbus to visit the Blue Jackets, 7:08 p.m., at Nationwide Arena. I've got the beat for eight straight days.

THE CONTENT

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